


we all fall down

by nasa



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 22:04:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14627958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nasa/pseuds/nasa
Summary: Tony and Steve meet post-Infinity War.-“He’s dead,” Tony says.He is covered in grime and blood. There’s an open cut on his temple. His suit is jagged and melted around him, like half of it, too, was snapped out of existence."Everyone is dead," Steve says.





	we all fall down

“He’s dead,” Tony says.

He is covered in grime and blood. There’s an open cut on his temple. His suit is jagged and melted around him, like half of it, too, was snapped out of existence.

“Who’s dead?” Rhodey asks, hand tight on Tony’s shoulders. “Tony?”

“Peter’s dead,” Tony says dully. “He turned to ash in my arms.”

Then he moves, twisting out of Rhodey’s grip, and pukes onto dirt. Steve wonders how much of that earth is soil and how much is human ash. He wonders how many people he himself has breathed in.

“Tony,” Steve says.

Rhodey is rubbing Tony’s back, murmuring something Steve knows he isn’t supposed to hear. He listens anyway. “It’s not your fault, Tony. It would have happened whether or not you’d taken him up. It’s not your fault.”

“You don’t know that,” Tony rasps. “You don’t -“

“Tony, please,” Rhodey says, and Tony finally quiets. He takes a deep breath, shoves himself up to standing.

“Who else is dead?” he asks.

There is no sound but the wind through the trees. They glance at each other - Rhodey to Natasha to Bruce to Steve - but none of them speak.

“Tell me,” Tony demands. “Now.”

“Bucky,” Steve says. The name feels like blood torn from his throat. “Sam.” Much the same. “T’Challa. Wanda and Vision.”

“Thor?” Tony asks.

“In the palace. He has - plans.”

Tony looks at his hands. They are shaking. “So did I,” he says.

“Can we have a moment?” It’s phrased as a question, but everyone knows he’s not asking. As she passes him, Natasha gives him a clap on the shoulder - touch brief and firm and more for her benefit than his - and Steve manages to give her a terse nod.

Bucky is dead. Sam is dead. Wanda and Vision are dead. So many are gone. Half of the universe. Half of this universe has crumbled to dust, and it’s because Steve and Tony couldn’t find it in themselves to work together. Because Steve was so intent on saving his friend and his pride that he couldn’t sign a piece of paper. Because Tony was too scared, and let his courage falter.

“I’m sorry,” Steve says. The words ring out harsh in the clearing, and Steve watches the way Tony tenses in reaction to them, as though waiting for a following blow. “I should have trusted you. I should have been honest with you.”

“Yeah,” Tony says bitterly. “You should have.”

Steve waits, watches as Tony scuffs his shoe in the dirt. “I’m sorry, too,” Tony says finally. “It wasn’t worth it, you know. Not this. Nothing is worth this.”

“We can fix it,” Steve declares, with a boldness he did not know he had left in him. Tony has a habit of doing that - pulling things out of Steve that Steve himself didn't know were there.

“How?” Tony shakes his head, tilts it up to look in the sky. “I faced him, Steve. I threw everything I had at him, and all I could draw was a single drop of blood.”

“Better than me,” Steve admits. “He knocked me aside after two seconds.”

Tony laughs, a harsh sound. “Yeah, well. I think he was playing me. I think he did it deliberately. Left me on the planet with no one but his crazy daughter. Made me watch as they all died, one by one, and then, last -“

His voice cracks and breaks. Steve watches as Tony presses his eyes closed, holding tears at bay. Steve’s never seen Tony this emotional before - not when Jarvis died, not when Pepper left him, not when Steve did the same, only a year later, beating Tony half to death in his suit before abandoning him in a Siberian bunker. Cold. Ready to freeze. Just like Steve.

Sometimes Steve wonders if that was an unconscious choice on his part - did he want Tony to feel what he felt? Did he want him to wake, some decades from now, only to find a world that had moved on without him? Maybe then he would understand Steve’s perspective. Maybe then he would understand why you have to cling to certain things.

“He was seventeen,” Tony continues finally, some measure of control having returned to his voice. He sniffs, tilts his head back. “He was a child. And now he’s dead, and I have to tell his aunt. God. God, what am I going to tell his aunt?”

“We’re going to get him back,” Steve says. “We’re going to get all of them back.”

“Oh, yeah?” Tony asks. “How?”

“Come on, Tony. You know the answer to that question.”

He holds a hand out for Tony to take. Tony watches him with watery eyes.

Then he steps forward, forgoing Steve’s hand to throw his arms around Steve’s neck. Steve grabs him by the waist, pulls him in. He is warm and alive in Steve’s arms.

“Together,” Tony whispers.


End file.
